Raw vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:N/A:NSummary
CVE-2025-22226 is a high-severity Out-of-bounds Read (CWE-125) vulnerability in Vmware Esxi. Its CVSS base score is 7.1 (High).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploitation for Privilege Escalation (T1068); ranked in the top 24% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; CISA has added it to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog.
The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to SA-11 (Developer Testing and Evaluation) and SA-8 (Security and Privacy Engineering Principles) — see the control section below for these in your framework.
Deeper analysis AI-assisted summary
Synthesised by an AI model from the NVD description and linked references — a reading aid, not an authoritative source.
VMware ESXi, Workstation, and Fusion contain an information disclosure vulnerability stemming from an out-of-bounds read in the HGFS component. The flaw is tracked as CVE-2025-22226 with a CVSS score of 7.1 and is classified under CWE-125. It affects the virtualization products listed above and permits leakage of memory contents from the vmx process.
A malicious actor who already possesses administrative privileges inside a virtual machine can trigger the out-of-bounds read to disclose memory belonging to the vmx process on the host. The attack requires local access to the guest but no additional user interaction, and the CVSS vector reflects that the scope change allows host memory exposure without affecting integrity or availability.
Broadcom has published a security advisory detailing the issue, and the vulnerability appears in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog, indicating that mitigation guidance and patches are available through vendor channels for affected ESXi, Workstation, and Fusion releases.
EPSS for the CVE rose from a low baseline to a recorded peak of 0.0680 on 2026-03-05 before receding to the current value of 0.0423, showing a post-disclosure increase in exploitation interest that warrants monitoring.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2025-7605
Vulnerability Data
VMware ESXi, Workstation, and Fusion contain an information disclosure vulnerability due to an out-of-bounds read in HGFS. A malicious actor with administrative privileges to a virtual machine may be able to exploit this issue to leak memory from the vmx…
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process.
- CWE(s)
- KEV Date Added
- 04 March 2025
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Developer testing and evaluation directly finds out-of-bounds read flaws through static analysis, fuzzing, and dynamic bounds checks.
Secure engineering principles require bounds checking and memory-safe constructs that stop out-of-bounds reads from being introduced.
Process isolation confines the effects of an out-of-bounds read to the compromised process.
Input validation rejects malformed indices or lengths that would otherwise cause reads outside buffer bounds.
Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI
Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.
Secure-development practices such as bounds checking and memory-safe languages directly prevent out-of-bounds reads.
Vulnerability scanning and recording can discover instances of out-of-bounds reads after code is deployed.
Routine patching replaces vulnerable code containing out-of-bounds read flaws.
Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI
Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.
Security testing in development and acceptance includes fuzzing and static analysis that detect out-of-bounds read defects before release.
Logging can record evidence of an out-of-bounds read but does not prevent the weakness itself.
Secure development life cycle mandates input validation and bounds checking that directly prevent out-of-bounds reads.
Application security requirements include explicit bounds and memory-safety specifications that mitigate buffer over-reads.
Secure system architecture and engineering principles require memory-safe design patterns and runtime protections against out-of-bounds access.
Secure coding standards explicitly forbid unsafe pointer arithmetic and mandate bounds-checked reads, eliminating CWE-125.